Dubai satellite captures Yas Island image 600km above Earth

The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre has shared a high-resolution image of Yas Island taken from a Dubai satellite 600 kilometres above the Earth's surface.

Mangrove forests, waterway arteries and development on Yas Island have been captured in a satellite image from space. Courtesy Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre

ABU DHABI // Mangrove forests, waterway arteries and development on Yas Island have been captured in a satellite image from space.

The red roof of Ferrari World and the green course of Yas Links Golf Club can clearly be made out in the one-metre resolution image taken by one of Dubai’s satellites 600 kilometres above the man-made island.

The final true-colour photograph is a combination four separate images taken in red, green, blue and black-and-white bands, said Salem Al Marri, assistant director general of scientific and technology affairs at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre.

“The reason we do this is so we can take each band by itself and study and analyse it to see what the naked eye cannot see,” said Mr Al Marri.

The information obtained from images can be used for environmental projects, urban planning and infrastructure development, disaster management, mapping, scientific research and to provide specialised reports.

These are provided free of charge by the space agency to local government and educational entities and at a cost to commercial enterprises, said Mr Al Marri.

Launched in 2013, DubaiSat-2 captures high-resolution images as it circumnavigates the globe 14 times a day, including four times over the UAE. The second UAE-owned satellite was built mainly by engineers in Dubai and South Korea.

KhalifaSat, the first satellite built entirely by Emirati engineers, will augment Dubai Sat-2 when it is launched in 2018 and provide more detailed images thanks to a higher-resolution camera.